This invention relates to improvements in apparatus for loading bobbins or reels of convoluted web material into web consuming machines and for unloading expired or consumed bobbins from such machines. More particularly, the invention relates to improvements in apparatus for replacing expired rotary bobbins with fresh rotary bobbins containing supplies of convoluted flexible web or strip material. As a rule, or at least in many instances, an expired bobbin consists of a tubular core or shell which is ready to be discarded or to receive a fresh supply of convoluted paper or the like. Typical examples of web or strip material which is stored on the core or shell of a bobbin is cigarette paper, so-called tipping paper which is used in machines for making filter cigarettes or like products, metallic foil, plastic foil or other web-like materials which are utilized in the tobacco processing industry for the making of tubular wrappers for tobacco, filter material for tobacco smoke or both, for conversion into blanks which are ready to be draped around arrays of plain or filter cigarettes or the like, and for analogous purposes.
As a rule, a conventional fresh bobbin loading or replacing machine (e.g., in a cigarette rod or filter rod making machine, in a filter tipping machine or in a cigarette packing machine) comprises one or more supports or carriers for fresh and expiring bobbins, a reservoir for storage of at least one fresh bobbin at the loading station, a station for the storage of a supply of fresh bobbins, means for conveying fresh bobbins from a larger source or from a maker to the aforementioned station, means for conveying fresh reels at the station and to the reservoir, and means for delivering (when necessary) discrete fresh bobbins or reels from the reservoir to the carrier which supports a reel during withdrawal of web from the core of the expiring bobbin of course, it is equally necessary to withdraw the expired (spent) bobbins (i.e., the empty cores or spools) and to dispose of such remnants of fresh bobbins.
A drawback of the aforedescribed conventional bobbin loading (expired bobbin replacing) apparatus is that they occupy inordinately large amounts of space as well as that they comprise a large number of in part bulky, in part complex and/or in part expensive component parts. This holds particularly true for the various conveyor systems which must be provided to deliver loaded (fresh) bobbins relatively close to, thereupon nearer to and ultimately all the way to (onto) the devices (such as stub shafts or the like) which support the bobbins during withdrawal of web material therefrom.
An apparatus of the above outlined character is disclosed, for example, in European patent No. 0 820 944. The patent discloses a turntable which supports an expiring bobbin, a frame which supports a fresh bobbin behind the turntable, and endless belts or bands which are mounted on or in the frame and which serve to advance fresh bobbins along the frame and nearer to the rear side of the turntable. Additional conveyor means serve to take over filled bobbins from the aforementioned belts or bands and to advance such bobbins to the front side of the is turntable, namely into the range of bobbin-supporting means on the turntable.
Published German patent application Serial No. 41 13 193 discloses a different bobbin loading apparatus wherein the endless belts or bands are replaced with means for lifting loaded bobbins from a lower level to a higher level. A drawback of each of the aforedescribed conventional apparatus, especially of that disclosed in the aforementioned European patent, is that the combinations of various bobbin delivering, storing and additional transporting means contribute excessively or at least appreciably to the bulk, complexity and cost of a production line in a cigarette making and packaging plant. Moreover, such apparatus must be installed at locations where space is at a premium and wherein the elimination of malfunctions is likely or bound to involve prolonged interruptions in the operation of a production line and attendant enormous losses in output. Therefore, it is highly desirable that the operation of each unit or subassembly in such complex machinery be simplified as much as possible,
An object of the invention is to provide a simple, compact and relatively inexpensive apparatus for loading fresh rotary bobbins or reels and for evacuating expired bobbins in situations when an uninterrupted supply of paper strips or other web material is of importance for proper operation of a mass-producing machine or an entire production line.
Another object of the invention is to provide the apparatus with novel and improved means for delivering fresh bobbins to the web dispensing station or stations.
A further object of the invention is to provide the above outlined apparatus with a novel and improved arrangement for the evacuation of expired bobbins from the web feeding station.
An additional object of the invention is to provide a machine which employs one or more bobbin processing apparatus of the above outlined character.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a tobacco processing or a tobacco smoke filtering material processing machine which embodies one or more bobbin manipulating apparatus of the above outlined character.
A further object of the present invention is to provide the above outlined apparatus with novel and improved means for manipulating accumulations of fresh and/or expired bobbins or reels at the locale of use of web material.
Another object of the invention is to provide a novel and improved method of manipulating fresh and expired bobbins or reels at a location where fresh bobbins are compelled to dispense their supplies of convoluted web or strip material in the form of paper, metallic foil, plastic foil, coherent blanks for conversion into packets or the like.
An additional object of the invention is to provide a method of treating fresh bobbins gently and at a required frequency or speed to ensure the delivery of convoluted web or strip material to one or more consumers at a required rate and invariably in optimum condition for further processing.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a novel and improved combination of a reservoir for fresh bobbins and conveyor means for moving fresh bobbins or reels within as well as outside of the reservoir in a novel and improved manner.
A further object of the instant invention is to reduce the total of down times of mass-producing machines which must receive uninterrupted supplies of webs or strips of flexible material in the form of paper, metallic foil, plastic foil or the like.
Another object of the invention is to automatically regulate the distribution of filled and/or expired bobbins in the reservoir or reservoirs of a bobbin loading/unloading machine.
One feature of the present invention resides in the provision of an apparatus for replacing expired rotary bobbins with fresh rotary bobbins containing supplies of convoluted web material. The improved apparatus comprises a mobile carrier (such as a turntable which is indexible about a substantially horizontal axis) for expiring bobbins (i.e., for bobbins which are about to rotate or in the process of rotating to become expired bobbins as a result of withdrawal of the supplies of convoluted web material from their cores, normally in the form of hollow spools), a reservoir or storage facility for temporary storage of fresh bobbins, and means for conveying fresh bobbins from the reservoir directly to the carrier.
The turntable is provided with one or more supports (such as two stub shafts which are located diametrically opposite each other with reference to the axis with respect to which the turntable is indexible and which can be received in the hollow cores of bobbins to drive or to be driven by the bobbins).
In accordance with a presently preferred embodiment, the conveying means comprises an elevator which can raise or lower at least one selected fresh bobbin to any one of a plurality (e.g., an infinite number) of different levels with respect to the carrier to thus facilitate the transfer of a fresh bobbin onto the single support or onto one of two or more plural supports, and means for advancing the elevator toward and away from the carrier.
The reservoir preferably comprises means (e.g., in the form of two rails which are parallel and flank the axis of rotation of the carrier) for storing a plurality of coaxial bobbins The axis or axes of the fresh bobbin(s) in the reservoir is or are parallel to the axis or axes of the rotary carrier and/or its support or supports for fresh, expiring and expired bobbins.
The guide or guides of the reservoir is or are or can be at least substantially horizontal. In accordance with one presently preferred embodiment, the storing means for fresh bobbins comprises two parallel guide members (e.g., in the form of facetted horizontal rails) for outermost convolutions of convoluted web material on the stored coaxial bobbins, and the elevator of the conveying means is movable up and down between the guide members to lift selected fresh bobbins off the guide members. The turntable of the mobile carrier is indexible about an axis which is parallel to the guide members, and the conveying means of such apparatus further comprises means for transporting the elevator at a level such that the fresh bobbin or bobbins on the elevator is or are movable above and in parallelism with the guide members toward or away from the turntable. Such elevator is transportable to deliver at least one fresh bobbin from a given or desired or only remaining position in the reservoir directly onto a single support or onto one of several supports of the indexible carrier.
Regardless of whether the turntable carries one or more supports (such as one or more stub shafts), each support is preferably eccentric (i.e., its axis can be parallel to but need not coincide with the axis of the turntable), and the apparatus can further comprise means for releasably clamping the core of a fresh bobbin on the shaft or a shaft of the turntable.
The clamping means can comprise means for holding the core of a bobbin against movement axially of the shaft and away from the turntable.
If the reservoir comprises at least one elongated guide for fresh bobbins, the conveying means can comprise means for lifting a first fresh bobbin off any one of a plurality of selected portions of the at least one guide and for depositing a fresh bobbin on any one of a plurality of second selected portions of the at least one guide. The second selected portions include or can include a portion in which a fresh bobbin is maintained in a position of readiness for transfer directly onto the carrier. The position of readiness is or can be that position of the second plurality which is nearest to the carrier.
In order to automate the operation of the improved apparatus, the latter preferably further comprises one or more sensors and/or other signal generating means for monitoring the positions of fresh bobbins in the reservoir. The monitoring means is or can be arranged to share the movements of the conveying means, i.e., to share at least those movements of the elevator which take place in directions axially of the turntable toward and away from the support or supports. The signal generating means can comprise or control or cooperate with suitable means for arresting the conveying means in response to detection of a fresh bobbin in the reservoir. The arrangement can be such that the signals which are furnished by the monitoring means are utilized to effect the delivery of successive fresh bobbins from the reservoir to the carrier. The means for delivering can be arranged to deliver successive fresh bobbins to a predetermined position in the reservoir and, in the event that the predetermined position is then occupied, to a position immediately adjacent the predetermined position. If the latter (immediately adjacent) position is also occupied, the delivering means is caused or instructed to deliver fresh bobbins to another selected position, preferably a position nearest to the mobile carrier.
The improved apparatus preferably further comprises a novel and improved arrangement for manipulating hollow rotary cores which constitute expired bobbins. Such arrangement can comprise at least one magazine for cores (expired bobbins) and means for transferring cores from the mobile carrier to the magazine. The transferring means can comprise means for mechanically or otherwise (e.g., pneumatically) gripping cores during transfer from the carrier to the magazine.
The magazine of the improved arrangement for evacuation of expired bobbins can comprise an elongated trough which is arranged to confine expired bobbins in positions in which the expired bobbins are at least substantially coaxial with each other. The transferring means of such arrangement can comprise means for moving expired bobbins in the trough by way of the expired bobbin being transferred from the carrier into the trough.
The just described arrangement for disposing of expired bobbins (i.e., for removing expired bobbins from the mobile carrier) can be utilized with (e.g., incorporated into) the novel apparatus for replacing expired bobbins with fresh bobbins, or independently of such apparatus or any other known apparatus which is adapted to deliver fresh bobbins to one or more supports on an indexible turntable or another suitable carrier.
An important step of the novel method is that of transferring fresh bobbins (e.g., for convoluted webs of cigarette paper, tipping paper or wrapping material for arrays of plain or filter cigarettes or the like) from a reservoir directly to that part of the apparatus which supports an expiring bobbin, i.e., which supports the bobbin that is in the process of dispensing convoluted web or strip material into a web consuming or processing machine. Another important step of the improved method is that of moving a selected fresh bobbin in and from the reservoir in a plurality of directions, e.g., first upwardly to disengage the selected fresh bobbin from the component part or parts of the reservoir, and thereupon horizontally or substantially horizontally toward the mobile carrier, preferably directly into requisite engagement with the support (such as one of the aforediscussed stub shafts) which carries an expiring bobbin, namely a bobbin which is in the process of being relieved of the supply of convoluted web or strip on its core.